Mechanism for reclaiming tobacco from rejected filter tip cigarettes



FROM

4 Sheets-Sheet l P 10, 1953 D. A, m MANN! MECHANISM FOR RECLAIHING TQBA'CCO I REJECTED FILTER TIP CIGARETTES Filed Oct. 5, 1960 R O T N E V N DAmEL DIIANNI BY W AT TORN EY Sept 963 D. A. D] IANNI mcumsm FOR RECIAIMING 'roaaccn mom 2 REJECTED FILTER TIP mamas Filed 001;. 6, 1960 v 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR DANIEL DIIANNI #lmflw ATTORNEY Se m, 1963- A m Mm 3,I03,222

MECI-EANISM FQR 1'0 060 FROW REIJEQTED FILTER TIP GIGARELI'ES Filed Oct. 6, 1960 4 Sheets-She a 5 INVENTOR DANIEL Dal/mm llllllll i. 1 wn BY my.

ATTORNEY United States Patent This mechanism relates to an apparatus and method fo r cla m n tobacco vfr r e ed c g ret s. and P ticularly filter tip cigarettes.

' Various devices and methods have been devised for salvaging tobacco from rejected cigarettes. Some have broken the rejected cigarettes so as to separate the to bacon and paper wrappers and then the broken material through a sitting screen where the is winnowed or sent paper and mouthpiece material is separated from the tobacco. 'lhislra's not been entirely satisfactory because it has broken the tobacco up into undesirable smaller pieces, and the separation of the paper and the tobacco has not been as readilyattained as is desired.

It is an object of this invention to provide a tobacco reclaiming apparatus for rejected cigarettes, which will ibe of simple design will be reliable in operation.

Another objectof this invention is to provide a simple me f claimin tobacco in defective igar t siQ- hs object o th s .inyem s is t P d b t c im a ara us which wil salvag a o from rejected cigarettes by blowing the tobacco :out of the defective cigarette.

Anotherobjectof this invention to provide a'reclaiming apparatus wherein pins are provided for holding the cigarette mouthpiece while air blows the tobacco out from the cigarette wrapper.

A further object of this invention is to provide a tobacco reclaiming apparatus for defective cigarettes wherein cigarettes are fed to a conveyor which holds and moves the cigarette past an air station where air blows the tobacco out from the cigarette wrapper.

Another object of this invention is to provide a salvag ing mechanism wherein the wrapper of the cigarette is weakened for at least part of its length and wherein air is employed to blow out tobacco from the gripped cigarette.

Other objects and features of the invention will appear as the description of the particular embodiment selected to illustrate the invention progresses. In the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, like characters of reference have been applied to corresponding parts throughout the several views which make up the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an end elevation showing the tobacco reclaiming apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional side elevation taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevational view of the defective cigarette conveying drum, and the perforating mechanism, and a portion of the feed hopper for defective cigarettes.

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional plan view taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional View taken on the line 55 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a detailed view showing the perforating mechanism.

FIGS. 7, 8 9, and 10 show various orifice configurations for blowing air through the length of cigarettes.

Defective cigarettes are placed in the hopper 10. Suitable mechanism is provided for vibrating the bottom floor 12, the sliding floor 14, and the bafiles 16. Suitable deflectors 18 and 20 are employed for lining the defective .drum .40 t gtette sogripped in this manner reaches 7 3,103,222 C v Patented Sept 10, 1963 cigarettes up side by side as well forsupporting some of the weightlof the cigarettes that would normally be exerted on the lowermost defective cigarettes. A suitable curred cigarette supportin pocket 22 is provided at the bO tOm of the hopper 11) for directing the cigarettes to the pick-up, conveyor.

It will be evident from the foregoing description that .th cy b ato y mechanism ,will causecigarettes to ad a ove the .ti fl ctcr 1.8 n wand 16. al ng t e yi a y floo 1' a d 111 BY rosition ngfth fl or .1 a d l re a i ely clos to e ch o h r and t e ef or P at above the same, it has been found that this prevents a 1am f qmuoc urri g a t is po n an th def i c a ettes are'fed systematieallyjnto the rangeof the pockets .qt ye 2. i c

As the conveyor 24 rotates in the direction indicated by the wow ci ar tte a pick up y th r k 2. The cigarettes are'pushed back against the rear face or bac fl n 2 M th dr m by p ow 78 so tha a r th p s f q oa n o the c gare te clear throu to egth en b m nsc o ifice 1- a the iaa efi pa s y h slit in um .1 s n c pier i me e 30 penetratethe side of the defective cigarettes, thereby weakening the wrapper along its length. It will be apprecited that while I have shown and described .a slitting type of tobacco an rapper th at is employed. .In some t ut my .i Y ntlQ Wil W r q a a W 'W hout anypre-weakeningofthe wrapper. v

hen the igarettes slit in this manner, come intothe rate n a ti n o .d m .3 h p ns carried by the 32 ,engagethe end of the cigarette (FIGS. 1 and a point 35 which is approriimately inline with the shaft 36 of the drum 24 and the shaft 38 of the drum 32, it will be opposite to the blower 40, which is connected to a suitable supply of compressed air by means of a hose 42.

Referring to FIGURE 2, the tensioning spring 48 pulls the shaft 36 and drum assembly 24' against the blower nozzle so that good sealing may be effected. The shaft 36 is supported by brackets 52 and 54.

A ratchet clutch mechanism 56 connected to drive sprocket 58, drives shaft 36.

A cam roller60 is attached to the reciprocating fork 62 which drives the above described vibratory baffles 16 in the hopper. The cam roller 60 traclts on cam 64. A ratchet mechanism 66 drives the lower agitators 12 and 14 by means of fork 72, as shown in FIG. 1. A spur gear 68 is coupled through a train of gears to a spur gear 70 which is attached to the refuser roller 74. The fork 72 is actuated by ratchet mechanism 66 and is coupled to the vibrator floor 12 shown in FIG- URE l.

A refuser roller 74 allows only the required amount of defective cigarettes to pass to the pockets 26 of the drum assembly 24. A plow 78 forces the cigarettes back against the rear face 25 of the drum.

In FIGURE 5, I have shown how the compressed air from the pneumatic hose 42 is automatically valved by the surface of drum 24, so as to avoid having a loss of compressed air at this point, except during the actual elimination of tobacco from the gripped cigarette. At this time orifices 41 formed in drum, 24, pass by the air jet 40.

Because the cigarette has been weakened along its length by the slitting or perforating members 30, when air is injected through the end of the. cigarette, the cigarette wrapper will not burst but will instead open at the slit-thereby enabling the wrapper 39 and mouthpiece portion 37 to be held, by pins 34 of drum 32 while tobacco is blown from the defective cigarette.

the main When the tobacco has been eliminated from the cigarette in this manner, the drum 32, rotating in the direction indicated by the arrow, brings the defective cigarette paper and filter held by pins 34 ofdrum 32 into the range of action of the stripper 44, which removes the paper and mouthpiece. A suitable duct 46 is positioned immediately in front of position 35 to receive the tobacco blovm out from the cigarette by the compressed air com ing out of the orifice 41 through the compressed air hose 4-2.

To facilitate ejecting the tobacco, it has been found that certain orifice openings sometimes tend to be more effective with certain types of tobacco and mouthpieces than other shaped orifice openings. For example, -I have shown in FIG. 7, FIG. 8, FIG. 9, and FIG. 10, four different types of openings which could beemployed for this purpose in the conveyor 2.4. p

A single round orifice opening, however, could also be employed without the necessity of resorting to a particular shape or a particular design or orifice opening.

The invention hereinabove described may therefore be varied in construction within the scope of the claims, for the particular device selected to illustrate the invention is but one'of many possible embodiments of the same. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted to the precise details of the structure shown and described.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for reclaiming tobacco from defective cigarettes, comprising means for conveying cigarettes past a reclaiming station, a piercing device for weakening the cigarette wrapper in an axial direction along its length, means for gripping said cigarettes, and means for blowing air through the length of said cigarette having said wrapper weakened at said reclaiming station to remove substantially all tobacco from the length of the cigarette.

2. Apparatus for reclaiming tobacco from defective cigarettes which comprises means for feeding defective cigarettes, a fluted conveyor drum for receiving said defective cigarettes, a pin for piercing the mouthpiece end of the defective cigarette to maintain the same free from axial movement while maintaining the air passageway through the mouthpiece unrestricted and means for blowing a stream of air axially into the mouthpiece end of the cigarette to eject substantially all the shredded tobacco from the cigarette.

3. Apparatus for reclaiming shredded cigarette tobacco from defective mouthpiece cigarette-s comprising, a fluted drum, a feed for delivering mouthpiece cigarettes to the flutes of said drum with the mouthpiece ends all facing in the same direction, stops for positioning said mouthpiece cigarettes in said flutes, pins for piercing the mouthpiece ends of said cigarettes to maintain them free from axial movement, a blower for blowing air axially into the mouthpiece end of and through the length of each of said cigarettes and means for rotating said drum to ring said cigarettes successively in front of said blower to cause the shredded tobacco to be blown out from said wrapper by air blown through the mouthpiece ends of the cigarettes to remove substantially all of the tobacco from each cigarette.

References Qited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 745,846 Holmes Dec. 1, 1903 1,784,296 Lorentz Dec. 9, 1930 1,948,626 Patterson Feb. 27, 1934 2,104,292 Caraballo Jan. 4, 1938 2,277,686 Blount Mar. 31, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,215,370 France Nov. 16, 1959 

1. A DEVICE FOR RECLAIMING TOBACCO FROM DEFECTIVE CIGARETTES, COMPRISING MEANS FOR CONVEYING CIGARETTES PAST A RECLAIMING STATION, A PIERCING DEVICE FOR WEAKENING THE CIGARETTE WRAPPER IN AN AXIAL DIRECTION ALONG ITS LENGTH, MEANS FOR GRIPPING SAID CIGARETTES, AND MEANS FOR BLOWING AIR THROUGH THE LENGTH OF SAID CIGARETTE HAVING SAID WRAPPER WEAKENED AT SAID RECLAIMING STATION TO REMOVE SUBSTANTIALLY ALL TOBACCO FROM THE LENGTH OF THE CIGARETTE. 